Supporting families: Investigating support options for family members of young people with problematic drug use

Supporting families: Investigating support options for family members of young people with problematic drug use

There are many Australian families who are affected by the problematic drug use of a family member. Through this project the ANCD has the opportunity to provide quality advice to governments on appropriate interventions that work to support the parent/s or carer/s and other family members of a drug using family member. For this project, the ANCD has chosen to focus on the family members of a drug using young person or young adult (herein referred to as ‘young people’ or ‘young person’).

While the majority of available services and programs often target young people, the detrimental effect of a young person’s drug use on the social, emotional, health and economic well being of their family can often go unrecognised. The ANCD acknowledges that in the absence of an appropriate level of support, education and access to services family members of a problematic drug user/s are often subject to multiple complex stressors that have the potential to result in a number of additional problems for the family.

In particular, the ANCD believes that family members often receive inconsistent messages about which services and support options will appropriately address their needs. The ANCD also recognises that there is a lack of information available about the effectiveness of current programs. The current project seeks to address this issue.

This project will aim to conduct an exploration of the evidence-based research into the needs of family members of a young person/s who is/are involved in problematic drug use and to make recommendations about which programs or services most effectively address the needs of these family members. The project’s specific objectives are:

To outline the ways that a young person’s problematic drug use impacts on family members and to establish the range of needs of family members who are adversely affected by these behaviours.
To identify the key elements of programs or services in Australia and overseas that involve family members seeking assistance for themselves.
To provide an overview of the research evidence about the effectiveness of programs or services that target family members of young people who are problematic drug users.
To make recommendations based on research evidence about the effectiveness of the elements of programs or services that target family members of young people who are problematic drug users.

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